was a center for contemporary art in Southeast Portland, Oregon. It was led by a desire to support artists, propose new modes of production, and stimulate the ongoing public discourse around art. This website serves as an archive of Yale Union’s programming from 2011 through 2021.

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TOM MARIONI

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For Immediate Release: July 7, 2011

YU PRESENTS: TOM MARIONI’S

THE ACT OF DRINKING BEER WITH FRIENDS IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF ART

Tom Marioni returns to Portland for the closing event of YU’s first Preview Project and inaugural exhibition Selections from the PCVA Archive

On Saturday, July 30 from 4-7pm, YU will present Tom Marioni’s The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art as the closing event for its first Preview Project and on the final day of its inaugural exhibition Selections from the PCVA Archive (galleries will be open 12-7pm). YU becomes the latest institution to present this work, following presentations by Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and UCLA’s Hammer Museum.

The event marks the artist’s return to Portland after more than thirty years, having last exhibited a piece titled Yellow Is The Color Of Intellect at the Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA) in 1977.

A series of three private evenings with invited guests and bartenders in West Coast, YU’s subterranean social space, will precede the public event on July 30. Like in other museum presentations of this work, the
artist will be in attendance and the empty beer bottles and other objects from the private gatherings will be displayed along with a bar, refrigerator, and video projection as part of Marioni’s bar-like installation. The work will be installed in YU’s garage, in what will be the future location of YU’s cafe following the repourposing of the Yale Union Building.

A limited number of tickets are available for advance purchase only at www.yaleunion.org. Admission price is sliding scale donation to YU at $5 and up. Guests must be 21 and older – valid ID must be presented at the door. Beer generously provided by the NINKASI brewing company.

MORE: Marioni first performed The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art in 1970 at the Oakland Museum, CA and continued the action as a weekly event in various incarnations held at
the Museum of Conceptual Art, SF- Marioni’s unprecedented art space for conceptual installation and performance pieces, in bars near SFMOMA (1976-1989) and now his own studio. The action “comes out of my art school days of drinking beer with my friends. For more than 30 years I have been hosting a salon and artists’ club in my studio and galleries as an interactive installation that is site- specific, audience- participation, social sculpture” said Marioni.

WHAT: Tom Marioni’s The Act of Drinking Beer With Friends is the Highest Form of Art
WHERE: YU – 800 SE 10th Ave
WHEN: Saturday, July 30, 2011, 4pm-7pm
ADMISSION: Sliding scale donation to YU starting at $5 and up. Limited capacity, reserve tickets at www.yaleunion.org
Selections from the PCVA Archive exhibition will be open from 12-7pm- admission is free.